Friday, September 3, 2010

On Wednesday we started preparing for the big day. Daddy’s 35th birthday was tomorrow and the girls (a 2yo and a 4yo) had been agonizing for days about what to make. First they wanted to get him a SpongeBob cake so I thought I was going to get off easy. You know, shell out the 35 bucks for the cake and get on with it. Then Andira (my 4yo) remembered a recipe we had seen for ice cream cone cakes and that was it. She sold Inara (my 2yo) on the idea and the decision was made.

We began by actually making the cones on Wednesday. The girls carefully filled the cones with batter and we baked them in the oven. In the interest of allowing them to cool completely we did not decorate the cakes until the next day. On Thursday they carefully frosted and added sprinkles to each and every single cone. They were so proud of their master piece that it should not have come as a surprise to me that the girls were emotionally invested in the birthday masterpieces they had made for their father.

So, the family came over and we all ate and celebrated the occasion. When time for dessert came I had baked my husband’s dessert of choice, baked chocolate pudding, and his mom had made what she makes every year. Like the dessert loving fools we are we all tore into the dessert as though we had not just eaten 5 whole pizzas. Then with full tummies we all started to wind down our eating frenzy.

When Andira noticed that things were winding down and some people were clearing their plates she got kind of quite. Then I walked over to her and explained that her bedtime was approaching so she needed to get ready to say “goodnight.” This was when it was waterworks for me. Andira looked up at me with her gorgeous, big, brown eyes and said “but mommy, nobody ate the dessert I made.” It was all I could do to turn the other direction before I burst into tears. I had not thought about it because I thought the girls just wanted to do an activity, eat some cake and have something to show their daddy they did. It made perfect sense once I used my brain. They worked so hard and put so much love into their food that they wanted it to be included in the birthday meal their dad had and they wanted their loved ones to enjoy it too! Duh!

Needless to say all of the ice cream cone cakes disappeared within seconds. They were good too…